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BluWave-ai raises $8.1M to run power grids hit by AI data centres
BluWave-ai in Ottawa raised $8.1 million in Series A2 money. The company says its software helps utilities run grids as AI data centres add load.
Image: BetaKit
Why it mattersAI data centres pull more power from the same grid every month. A utility now has a named vendor that sells software to shift the load.
A new AI data centre pulls power from the grid every utility runs for everybody else. The grid was planned before anybody expected those customers. Ottawa company BluWave-ai raised $8.1 million US dollars in Series A2 money to sell software for that load. BetaKit's Madison McLauchlan reported the round on 12 November 2026.
The round holds three parts, per BetaKit. Angel investors and family offices put in equity. A federal department put in non-dilutive money, with the department not named. Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal put in 40 percent of the total as debt. No single lead investor is named. BluWave-ai has raised over $24 million since it was founded in 2017. The company has 40 staff.
What BluWave-ai sells
BluWave-ai's main product is software for electricity utilities. The app tracks energy load across a utility's grid. The app suggests how to mix renewable and other power to meet demand. A second product is for data centre operators. It shifts compute-heavy jobs to times when grid demand is lower. The company also licenses its patents to its customers, per BetaKit.
Four Ontario utilities started working with BluWave-ai in summer 2026, BetaKit reports. The utilities are not named in the article. The company runs in Japan and Europe too. The named driver for the round is data centre demand. Devashish Paul, the CEO, told BetaKit the grid is straining under new data centres coming online around the world.
Where the demand number comes from
BetaKit cites one specific demand figure. Hydro-Québec is forecasting that electricity demand in Québec could rise by more than 30 percent by 2041. The forecast is the utility's own. Some of the increase, per BetaKit, is tied to data centre demand. That is one province's forecast. The article does not quote a figure for Canada or North America.
A software company with 40 staff and bank debt is not going to rewire the grid. The money is a bet that utilities will pay for load-shifting software faster than they will build new power lines. The broader claim is that every AI product in a data centre has a power bill. That bill is charged to the operator, not to the person writing the model. It still sets what the operator charges the AI team per hour of compute. If the next data centre you book runs over its power envelope, the utility decides what runs when. The vendor that sold the utility its optimiser decides the rules.
Source
This item was written by an AI system from the linked source. Reveneau is responsible for what it publishes.
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